And yes, we had some good ole I.G. - aka: instantaneous gratification! We weren't anchored up and on the spot a few minutes before the first big bite came. Fresh dead shrimp, with a twist of arrow squid strip and that's all she wrote.
A ten pound really dark Black Drum.
Jus' what the doctor ordered. Joseph is a doctor.
But I was the jetty doctor this morning and that Drum is just what I wanted for him.
We had some other bites, obviously Whiting. But only boxed one big one. Those clear-nosed Rays of course are signaling that it's just about summer time, and we had about two TOO many. Then Joseph lays the wood to a bigger fish. And although his excitement for fishing outweighs his experience. He was of course a fast learner and worked a "biggun" to the boat.
He said something about the "rod breaking" from a big fish. I told him, "Heck, it's an Ugly Stik, you'll have to try harder than that to break an Ugly Stik"
And right about then a 33 inch Redbass popped up from 55 feet below.
The tide was still running and as long as it was, we still had chances at some BIG fish. We were on a really tight time line. Because this falling tide wasn't going to run all that long, before it would be all over, and time to go do something else. So we worked it till our 3 oz. sinkers wouldn't even push from underneath the boat. And before the tide quit. Joe nailed another good eater size Black Drum.
After this fish the bite was about over. So we pulled anchor and headed up river. I showed Joe, some of the usual fishing areas in the river. And we ended up at White Shell rocks, just as the tide started to flood up that way.
Time to get out the float-rigs and give them a try. So with live shrimp we drifted the floats down the rocks. Joe nails his first ever Speckled Trout, then a bluefish. So I give it a try too. I nail a few Trout. He gets a few more. But unfortunately all the trout were 14-1/2 inches.
He now has the hang of the float rigs. So we head back to the jetties were there wasn't a stitch of current yesterday. Today, we have plenty of current, there just wasn't any fish there!!
But Joseph now has the hang of it for next time around. So back to the dock for some EZ fish cleaning with my new Havalon Baracuta fillet knife....That's now about 22 fish on a single blade, and it's still deadly sharp.
